Lanvin / Fall 2011 RTW

Search a show by:

Is there a case for designers doing less, so they can think about saying more? Alber Elbaz, the man who fashion relies upon to offer up a grand sweep of a show which builds up into an ooh and ahh and a tingle and a sizzle and great big collective sigh, didn’t quite get there this season. It wasn’t that they were bad clothes, or that they didn’t look like Lanvin—in the ways in which the house is so well-known and loved—but, somewhere, the subtle leaps, connections, and splashes of brilliant offhand wit he specializes in were missing.

The opening look proposed a strict, almost clerical view of working womanhood: above knee-length suiting, with caped jackets and matching dresses in sober colors, walking on low, block-heeled loafers, with an attaché case or two swinging briskly alongside. This severity and the proportions looked new—there was just time to note the metal hardware–edged lapels and pocket tops—and it made you wonder where Elbaz was going with it all. But before this thread developed, there was a switch into tight, sharp little black dresses, all of them studded with giant crystal jewels à la Lanvin—extravagance against starkness—and a proportion-change with the addition of sharp-heeled ankle boots. From there, it was quickly into a couple of simple, long silk dresses (great cut, but not much new going on), a glimpse of an amazing black lace man-tailored overcoat over what seemed to be a matching bodysuit (the coolest idea in the show, but the least delved-into) and then a section of funny rib-knit dresses with attached poufy frills. Eventually, Elbaz wound up on familiar, colorful territory: the single shot of colorful gazar cut into a jolly little cocktail dress.

Though the mood ended cheerily, it was as if something might have been rushed or skimped in the development stages of this collection. That, with the best will in the world, wouldn’t be surprising with the pressure Elbaz has been under recently, after producing a collection for H&M and coming up with a full-fledged pre-fall runway show. It left a sort of longing, and a lack of closure in the air. Alber Elbaz is far from the only person in fashion suffering from time-deprivation, but it’s a syndrome nobody wants to see him, of all people, catching. Fast fashion is fine in its place. But what we want from Lanvin is the long, slow surprise.